Biblical Ecumenism - 6

Well, there can be no question that disunity among Christians is a deterrent to the gospel of Christ. It was our Lord Himself that said, love among believers is the main mark of discipleship.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have loved one for another. But fighting and wrangling among Christians is what unbelievers are more inclined to see in the church. And thus, it's not surprising that there are many calls for Christian unity.

We are divided. We need to unite, is what we are told. But sadly, so many of these calls are misguided because they do not understand biblical unity as it is presented to us in scripture. They manifest little understanding of true Christian unity, often thinking that organizational union is in fact Christian unity when it is not. Ecumenism, which is the big word for Christian unity, is conceived by many as uniting different types of religious groups into one big ecumenical conglomerate, one big ecumenical stew. But that is not what scripture teaches, but what in fact is true Christian unity. And our portion for today will help us, at least in part, to understand the answer to that question. Biblical ecumenism, how should we understand it? How can we develop it?

How can we maintain it? And there are three things I would like to emphasize in the first few verses of Philippians chapter 2. Biblical ecumenism must be grounded in biblical Christianity. Biblical ecumenism must be cultivated in sanctification. And biblical ecumenism must be perfected in humility. And if we can learn these things and apply these things, we can strengthen true biblical unity among the Christians that we know.

Biblical ecumenism or biblical unity must be grounded in biblical Christianity. Philippians 2.1 opens by these words, Therefore, if there is, and it names a number of things. Therefore, if there is, and when you see a therefore, we already know this, I'm only reminding you, whenever you see a therefore, we have to look back and see what it's there for.

It's always pointing to something in the preceding context, isn't it? It's a conclusion based on what has gone before. So what has gone before upon which Paul is drawing this conclusion?

Therefore, because of what I said previously, I can now add some additional things to it. And I think, though several things could be pointed to, I think primarily Paul is looking back to verse 27 of chapter 1. You'll see some very close similarity in this verse to what we find in chapter 2 in our text for today. But he says in Philippians 1.27, Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Do you see that similarity of language, that oneness of mind, that oneness of spirit, that striving together, joined together in Christian unity? And therefore, if there are these things that are mentioned in verse 1, that we'll issue forth into the Christian unity that the following verses talk about, it must be founded upon the gospel of Christ, a Christianity that is grounded in the gospel.

Therefore, let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, the problem is I see it with many ecumenical efforts today is that nobody wants to be precise about what the gospel is. Well, just assume that everybody believes, I don't know if we assume everybody believes the gospel, maybe it would be more accurate to say everybody believes a gospel. Everybody uses the word gospel. Everybody has something that they call gospel, even if they're talking about feeding the poor and think that's the gospel. Everybody has something they call the gospel. So we'll just assume that we all know the gospel and we'll move on to other things. No, no, no, no, not so fast.

Back up, back up, back up, back up. If we're going to have biblical unity, we have to start at the beginning. We have to start with the biblical gospel, not a false gospel, the biblical gospel. Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, anybody who reads the New Testament seriously knows that Paul is not ambiguous about the gospel. He's very clear about what that is, the message of the gospel. Most of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 15 that gives a very concise definition of the gospel. And Paul said there, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Here it is. What's the gospel?

Here it is. That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again from the dead. Those are the two main elements of the gospel, the vicarious death of Christ upon the cross and the victorious resurrection of Christ from the tomb. And not just the death of Christ upon the cross, the vicarious death of Christ upon the cross.

It wasn't that he died as an example, he died as a martyr. No, he died as a substitute. Christ died for our sins, vicarious death of Jesus Christ. You leave that out, you don't have the gospel. He died in the sinner's place.

He died as a substitute. He died as a sacrifice in the place of sinners upon the cross of Calvary. That's foundational truth number one of the gospel.

And what's the second one? And how he rose again on the third day. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's part of the gospel. If you don't believe in the bodily resurrection, you don't believe in the gospel. If you say that the resurrection is just a spiritual resurrection, that the spirit of Christ lives on forever in the hearts of those who believe in him, you don't believe the gospel. And there can be no Christian unity among people who don't start with the gospel.

Agreed? That's where it starts. Biblical ecumenism must be grounded in biblical Christianity and biblical Christianity begins with the gospel of Christ. It's a Christianity that is grounded in the gospel. It is also Christianity that changes lives. There's something to believe and then there's something to experience. There's something that demonstrates the power of the gospel in lives.

And that too is seen in verse 27 that the therefore points back to. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. There's the change in lives that true faith in the gospel produces.

So whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So we're talking about a Christianity number one that is grounded in the gospel. We're talking about a Christianity number two that changes lives. It changes conducts that your conduct is worthy of the gospel. It changes relationships that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. You see, we're already starting toward Christian unity because of the changes which the spirit of God makes in the lives of those who believe the gospel. We're talking about the effects of the new birth. It's a Christianity that changes lives.

And then it is number three, a Christianity that is rooted in spiritual realities. And now this takes us forward into chapter two, verse one, where Paul says, Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affections and mercy fulfill my joy, be like-minded, and so forth. Now that word if, as most of you already know, would probably more accurately be translated since. That would come closer to the meaning in our understanding of the English language. If raises the possibility that something may or may not be true. That's not what this is saying.

Technically, in the Greek, this is called a first-class condition. What does that mean? It means sense instead of if. That's what it means. It's as simple as that. That's what it means.

Let me translate this. If, as it surely is. If, as it definitely is. If this is the case, knowing that it, in fact, it is the case.

In other words, sense. Therefore, since there is consolation in Christ, since there is comfort in love or comfort of love, since there is fellowship of the spirit, since there is affection and mercy, Paul is predicating what he's calling upon them to do in verse two, upon these realities that are manifested in their position as believers in Jesus Christ. Back to the gospel. The gospel that is the true biblical gospel that changes lives. And these are some of the changes that flow out of the hearts of those who believe the biblical gospel.

What are they? They are, one, union with Christ. Two, motivation by love. Three, empowerment by the spirit.

And number four, guided by godly compassion. Since there is union with Christ, encouragement or exhortation is another way to translate this word. But it has the idea of being united with Christ and then receiving the encouragement or the teaching, the exhortation that flows from that union with Christ. That's why Sinclair Ferguson and his commentary says that this first one, if there is any consolation in Christ, has to do with our union with Christ. We are joined to Christ and as such joined to Christ, we share in all the blessings which he has obtained for those who trust in him.

Well, that's a pretty solid foundation to move forward upon, to see some real things happen, to see some real changes happen, to see some real love and biblical unity among the people of God. This joining to Christ and receiving all of the blessings that he has secured with his redemptive work. A Christianity that is rooted in spiritual realities such as union with Christ. Such as, number two, being motivated by love. The consolation or comfort that comes to us because of the love of Christ.

Paul said something similar in another passage where he says the love of Christ constrains me. The love of Christ compels me. The love of Christ motivates me. What is it that keeps me going on and traveling and preaching and being thrown into prison and suffering deprivations and pains and aches in my body but I can't quit? I won't quit. I don't want to quit. Why? Because the love of Christ empowers me and motivates me.

It keeps me from quitting. He loved me. I need to show, to demonstrate my gratitude to him for his love to me. Christianity that is rooted in spiritual realities. If you have that kind of motivation, that kind of love in your heart, that will solve an awful lot of problems in this life. What's another spiritual reality? Empowered by the Spirit. The third phrase in verse one is the fellowship of the Spirit. The participation in the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit of God who birthed us into the family of God, who binds us to Christ with an inseparable union and causes the benefits of Christ's death to flow into our life. The life, the very life of Christ to flow into us and who binds us to each other. We are all one in the body of Christ. We don't make that happen.

It has happened by the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to live accordingly. We need to recognize that reality. And there is a true biblical way to do it. But we're not going to make that happen. It's already happened.

It's kind of like the question or the challenge sometimes. You need to make Christ Lord. Well, he is, whether you make him that or not. He's not waiting for you to give him permission to become Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord.

He has risen from the dead and he is Lord. Now, it may be true that you have yielded to him in that capacity, and you do need to do that. You need to recognize who he is, but you can't make him Lord. You're too late for that. You're too late for that, and you're not the one that can do that anyway. And you can't make unity in the body of Christ.

You're too late for that. The Holy Spirit has been doing that for thousands of years as he joins each new believer to Christ and to all of those who belong to Christ. And one more spiritual reality that Christianity must be rooted in, and that's the last part of verse 1. We are guided by godly compassion, affection, and mercy. Affection is tenderness of our inner feelings. We have compassion for others. We have affection for others. And mercy, that's sympathy and reaching out to others. So the first word refers to a softening of our hearts as a result of the work of God's Spirit. Instead of being hard-hearted, we are tender-hearted. And then as a result of that, we reach out to others in loving-kindness and helpfulness, and that's a good step toward the kind of biblical unity that the Bible describes.

And so this unity must be grounded in biblical Christianity. For some reason, I thought about some of these folks that stand out by the side of the road and ask for handouts that you find at intersections. And I have to be careful. On the one hand, I don't want to be hard-hearted and without compassion.

On the other hand, I don't want to be dumb. And I saw the most honest one in the Walmart parking lot Friday. I had to laugh. I had my grandson Ezra with me, and he was holding up a sign and says, I won't lie, I need a beer. Finally, an honest panhandler. That was probably funny enough to get him some good response.

I didn't contribute to his beer fund, but I had to laugh. But I see these people, and they look pitiful, and yet somebody, I was talking about this with family the other night, and they said, yeah, we saw one standing between two We Are Hiring signs asking for a handout. Everybody's looking for workers, and here are people that evidently aren't willing to work. So it's a tough one, isn't it, sometimes? But you don't want to let your heart get so hard. I know somebody who saw somebody like that by the side of the road, and they said, I'm hungry.

I need help. And she drove home and made sandwiches and brought them back and handed them to him. And he got mad and threw them back. He didn't want those sandwiches. Of course not. He wanted money for booze probably.

So I don't want to be dumb. But I don't want to become hard-hearted either. The work of God's Spirit creates compassion. It creates tender mercies. It creates a kind and sympathetic outreach to others, particularly in the body of Christ, but toward all those who are unfortunate. And one of our duties in the body of Christ is to be able to discern what our genuine needs so that we can respond to those as opposed to those that are trumped up needs that are not being sincere and honest. And that's one reason why in the body of Christ we have the opportunity to know the people that we're interested in helping and to know their circumstances and to be able to determine how genuine these things are. But let's not become hard-hearted.

So what are we talking about? We're talking about Christian unity, and it must be grounded in biblical Christianity, not some kind of ill-defined general Christianity without definition or even nowadays beyond Christianity. Any religion whatsoever, let's gather them all together in one big ecumenical stew and just call it all unity of faith.

And that is not what the Bible is talking about. Faith in what? Faith in Diana of the Ephesians, faith in Artemis, faith in Zeus. Faith in what, friends? It has to be faith in the God of the Bible, the Christ of the Bible, the gospel of the Bible. That's the faith that we're talking about. It's rooted in biblical Christianity.

Number two, it's cultivated in sanctification. Verse two, Paul says, Fulfill my joy, being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind. You hear some of these same words and phrases repeated again. We've already heard about love.

Now he says be of the same love. This unity, be of one accord, be of one mind. It's cultivated in sanctification.

Why do I say that? Because sanctification, just for review, the word actually means to be set apart. To be sanctified is to be set apart.

And most of the time when we use it, we're talking about what we call progressive sanctification, and that's what Paul's referring to here, even though he doesn't use that term. But what does he say? He says make my joy complete, make my joy full. Paul has already made it clear that the evidence of genuine salvation in the lives of the Philippians had given him great joy. He was delighted because he had every confidence that they had been saved.

There was evidence for it that filled him with joy. But, he says, your unity will increase my joy. In other words, you need to grow in the grace of greater Christian unity. You need to progress in sanctification.

You need to develop greater maturity, greater love, greater oneness within the body of Christ. And this, and actually even going back to the verse in chapter 1, is beginning to hint that there were some divisions in the church at Philippi, and we finally get to that specifically in chapter 4, where Paul spells out by name a couple of people who weren't getting along. And he says, help these people to get along. They're not at oneness, they're at enmity with one another in the church at Philippi. That needs to stop. He believes that they're godly women, Christian women. I'm sorry, buddy, but you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If that thing stung my wife, we'd have to take her to the hospital, and maybe some of the others of you as well. Their salvation had produced joy in the heart of the apostle Paul, but he says there's room for more development, more growth. You need to progress in sanctification. And so it's a sanctification that is progressive. We're talking about biblical unity cultivated in sanctification. A sanctification that is progressive, Paul wants to see it be made complete in their lives. And it is a sanctification that is manifested.

There are evidences of it, now he goes through some of these evidences, which in some ways are repeats or near repeats of things he's already said. But here's how their sanctification ought to be manifested. Number one, by being of the same mind. Number two, maintaining the same love. Number three, being united in spirit.

Number four, being intent on one purpose. Being of the same mind. You need to be thinking the same thing about everything.

No, about the gospel, about Christ, about the work of the church. That's what you need to be of one mind about. You need to maintain the same love. What love? Well, he said earlier that you're going to be comforted by love, that is the love of Christ. If you think of Christ's love for you, that's going to motivate you to be what you ought to be, so you need to maintain the same love. The same love that Christ has for you, you need to have for him, but more to the point of this passage, you need to have for others. You need to have for your fellow believers in Christ. You need to have for fellow members of the church at Philippi. If these two ladies named in chapter four were having the same love for each other that Christ had for them, I don't think the problem would last another day.

It'd be solved. So maintain the same love. United in spirit, an inward unity.

This is not external organization. This is not some kind of physical union of all the Christian groups into one big umbrella. This is an inward thing, united in spirit, united in your inner man, united in your thoughts about Christ and the gospel and about what is true from the word of God. United in your sentiment toward one another in the gospel of Christ and intent on one purpose, and all of us should have the same purpose, which is we live to exalt Jesus Christ. We live to advance the gospel of Christ because that's what exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're all on the same page as to what our goal is, then we won't have so much disunity as this person is going this way, and this person is going that way, and this group has this goal, and that group has that goal, and there's no basis for unity in all of this. Get back to the center, to the gospel.

Which takes us to number three. Biblical ecumenism is perfected in humility, and this probably more than anything else is why we have so much trouble with it, because humility doesn't come easy to any of us, does it? If you think it does, you don't know your own heart much at all. If you think it does, you really don't understand biblical humility hardly at all. The more you grow in grace, the more you recognize the ugliness of your own pride.

And there are five aspects of humility that are delineated before us in verses three, four, and five. He says in verse three, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, there's that humility, let each esteem others better than himself. Humility purifies our motives.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. If we're honest before God and with our own heart, we'll have to admit that an awful lot of what we do, we do out of selfishness. We are more concerned about ourselves than others. We are interested in advancing ourselves over others. We are looking for ways to get ahead, even at the expense of others at times, we are selfish.

And Paul said this unity that ought to exist, and I'm sure does exist to some extent in the Philippian church, but needs to grow to a greater extent, this unity will be fostered in humility, and this is what humility looks like. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Don't do anything out of pride. Don't do anything out of selfishness.

Wow. I think I better go home and work on that one for the next several months. It doesn't matter what comes next. I've got a big job ahead of me on number one, don't I?

Maybe you don't, but I do, so please pray for me, because I've got some work to do on this one, and I suspect you do too. So number one, humility purifies our motives. Number two, humility diminishes our pride. That would seem to be pretty obvious, but in lowliness of mind, lowliness of mind.

I was struggling to find a way to understand and define that. I was combing through various commentaries, and I came to one, and I didn't even write down which one this was, but here's what this author said about lowliness of mind. Lowliness of mind rests in absolute dependence upon God for everything. That's lowliness of mind.

Lowliness of mind rests in absolute dependence upon God for everything. I want this, so I'm going to figure out a way to get it. Commit it to God and be totally dependent upon Him. Give it up to Him. If He wants you to have it, He'll give it to you. If He wants you to have that position, He'll give it to you. If He wants you to have that possession, He'll give it to you. If He wants you to have that honor, He'll give it to you. If He wants you to have that increase in salary, He'll give it to you.

If He wants you to have that opportunity, He'll give it to you. It's not that we're unmindful of these things, but we don't pursue them selfishly. We live in lowliness of mind.

We commit everything to the Lord and truly depend upon Him to accomplish everything in our lives that we desire. If He doesn't bring it about, apparently it wasn't a God-pleasing desire, and we're willing to let it go. That's lowliness of mind. That's humility. It's one thing to say it. It's another thing to do it.

I know a lot of people who believe in the sovereignty of God in the textbook, but when it comes to the way they live, they act like it's up to them to make everything happen the way they want it to happen, and they'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that. That's not humility. That's not lowliness of mind. Lowliness of mind depends upon God for everything.

Okay, what else? Number three, humility reduces our self-importance. Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Again, that sounds good to say it, but that's a tough one. Our minds don't work that way. Our Adamic hearts don't work that way.

If we can even give to someone else the honor of being close to equal, but better? That's right. That's gonna take help. That's gonna take work from the Spirit of God. That's right. That's gonna take true God-given Holy Spirit created humility. That's right.

That's what it's gonna take. Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Aren't we glad that Jesus Christ considered our salvation more important than his own life?

What if he hadn't? And one commentator, I think, astutely pointed out that pride before men exposes our pride before God. If we see evidences of our pride with others, and that is a signal, that should be an indication to us that we don't have the humility before God to the extent that we ought to have it. So what do we do?

We go to God and ask him for it, ask him for help. Lord, I see these evidences of pride. I can see where it's cropped up in my relationships with others. So therefore, Lord, I assume that I have more pride than I should in my relationship with you. Please humble me before your mighty hand that you might lift me up. And another commentator said, and I think accurately so, that zeal often breeds conceit and a critical spirit.

You have to watch this. It's a good thing to be zealous for the things of God, whatever it is that you're concerned about. Some people are, boy, they are all in when it comes to evangelism. They are bold. They've been given a boldness that isn't given to everybody.

They've been given a drive that hasn't been given to everybody. And they wanna, and they truly, in a very God-honoring way, wanna be out there evangelizing all the time. And if they're not careful, their zeal for evangelism is going to create a conceit within their hearts. I'm better than other Christians because look at the way that I evangelize and they don't. And it's going to create a critical spirit in their heart towards others. I'm better than other Christians because I'm evangelizing and they're not.

And shame, shame, shame, shame, shame in loneliness of mind let each esteem others better than yourself. And if you see God developing true humility within you, you'll eventually come to understand God has given me the gift of evangelism. God's given me a drive for evangelism. God's given me an opportunity for evangelism and a fluency in it that others don't have.

But that doesn't make me better than others because other people are doing other things better than I am. I see Christians who are showing the love of Christ to the poor and needy in the way that I'm not. I see Christians who are giving far more sacrificially to the cause of the gospel.

They're actually funding the missionaries who are going with the gospel of evangelism and on and on and on it goes. And pretty soon you realize I don't have anything to be conceded about. What do I have that hasn't been given to me by God? Now let me take it and use it for his glory with my zeal, but in all humility. The apostle Paul was a good example of this. Nobody was a more zealous evangelist. Nobody was a more zealous missionary. Nobody was a more zealous church planter than Paul. And yet what did he say down toward the end of his life? I'm the chief of sinners. Humility reduces our self importance. What else? Humility directs our activities, verse four.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. I don't have time for that. I don't have time for this. I don't have time for that. I don't have time for this. I know we're busy and many times we have things upon us that are legitimate obligations, but if we're not careful, we're gonna turn everything into our life, into a necessity, a legitimate obligation that we've got to do because we've got all these important things to do and we won't have any time for others.

We won't have any time for the church, except maybe just to attend, but certainly can't get involved in anything. We just don't have time for that because what? Because it really boils down to, at least in a lot of these things, we're looking out for our own interests, but not for the interests of others. Whoa, you've already hit me once or twice and you won't let up. You keep bearing down. Hey, I no wrote it. I just quote it, right? It's God's word.

Ouch. We don't merely look out for our own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. We need to be careful that we're not all doing our own thing but we're doing others' things.

We're not looking out primarily for number one. We're looking out for others equally. So humility directs our activities toward others. And then number five, humility reflects the mind of Christ and that introduces us to the passage, that incredible passage we're going to be getting into, not next Sunday because Don Theobald will be here, but beyond that. But this both closes the passage we have for this morning and introduces the one to come in verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

That sums it all up. If we have the mind of Christ, that will purify our motives. That's the humility that purifies our motives. If we have the mind of Christ, that's the humility that diminishes our pride. If we have the mind of Christ, that's the humility that reduces our self-importance. If we have the mind of Christ, that's the humility that directs our activities outward as much as toward our own interests.

The humility that reflects the mind of Christ. So to wrap this up, let me ask a couple of questions in closing and that is number one, what is Christian unity not? And number two, what is Christian unity?

Just a couple of things. This is not comprehensive. But what Christian unity is not? Christian unity is not everyone having the same preferences about everything. Christian unity doesn't mean that we all approve of and eat the same foods.

You know that. Christian unity doesn't mean that we all wear the same clothes or the same style of clothes. This is not putting everyone in our little Christian uniform so that everybody can tell what group we belong to.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not having the same preferences about everything. Not even all having the same preferences about music.

I have some thoughts about that, but let's be honest. Christian unity is not everybody having the same preferences about music or about sports. I had to write that one into my notes after I saw somebody out in the welcome center with their Duke shirt on.

And you can get into a fight over things like that. Hopefully not in the church, but I mean, here's a guy with his Duke shirt and here's a guy with his Carolina shirt and sometimes they can get pretty testy toward one another over something that matters about nothing. I picked up a stocking cap years ago off a sale table, probably paid a dollar for it because I needed a nice warm cap, but I found out that when I wore it, it got me into trouble at times.

It was a Red Wolf pack stocking cap. Now I was not promoting state. Corey wishes I did, but I really don't care, Corey.

I'm sorry about state or Duke or Carolina. It's all fine, but I'm not, this is not that important, but I find I quit wearing that cap. I got tired of people making comments about it. And Bethany in Maine expressed a desire for it. She remembered it from being, that's how long I've had it from when she was home. And I said, I'll gladly give it to you up there. It doesn't get her in trouble because nobody knows who Wolf pack is or who North Carolina state is and she can wear that nice red stocking cap, old style that has a big round ball attached to the top.

And she enjoys wearing that and I'm glad to be rid of it. It was a problem. Christian unity is not everybody having the same preference about sports and many other things.

And listen to me, I'm gonna say one that probably gets closer to home. Christian unity is not everybody having the same opinion about politics. I know Christians that have divided and split because so many in the church were rabidly committed to something and others were not. And if you're not for my party, if you're not for my candidate, if you don't see things my way, then I can't fellowship with you. I don't wanna be around you.

I don't wanna have anything to do with you. You need to soak your mind in Philippians chapter two for a good long while and let the word of God bathe that stupidity out of your heart. And Christian unity is not the same understanding about every little detail, every little minor doctrine in God's word. It is unity on the gospel. It is unity on the foundational truths of scripture, but we can have differences over minor matters. That's what it's not.

What is it? What Christian unity is is the same understanding of the gospel. That's pretty important. If you're gonna have unity in the church, we need to have the same understanding of the gospel. And thank God, I think that's largely true here, maybe entirely true, pretty close to it. Number two, Christian unity is the same understanding of the mission of the church. We're all agreed as to what we ought to be doing as a church. We are here to produce disciples of Christ. We're here to develop worshipers of Christ, which is another aspect of the same thing. We are here to develop Christian servants, another aspect of the same thing, to teach God's people to serve Christ in one another. Can we all agree on that? Then we can have unity and should have. Christian unity is the same passion for the glory of Christ.

Can we all have that in a united way? Our purpose for living is to bring glory to Christ. The purpose for our church is to bring glory to Christ. The purpose for my family is to bring glory to Christ. The purpose for my marriage is to bring glory to Christ. The purpose for my job is to bring glory to Christ. The purpose for everything I do is to bring glory to Christ.

Do you agree on that? Then we can have Christian unity, shall we pray. Father, help us in these matters. It's clear by observation that this is difficult for many people. Help us, Lord, to grow in our sanctification, that we may grow in humility, that we may grow in unity, as we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.